Matthew 2415When therefore you
see the abomination of
devastation, the thing said through Daniel the prophet,
stand in the holy place (the one
who reads, let him understand),
16then those in Judea,
let them
flee to the mountains.17The one on the roof, let him not come down
to take anything out of his house, 18and the one in the field, let him not turn back
to take his clothes, 19but woe to the
pregnant and those giving suck in those days. 20But be praying in
order that your flight not come to pass in winter or on the Sabbath. 21For then will there
be great afflictions such as have not come to pass from the beginning
to this time nor shall ever be. 22And if those days
were not shortened, no flesh would be saved, but because of the chosen
those days will be shortened.

The Book of Daniel, to which
Jesus referred but once, in the utterance above, makes a limited but
significant
contribution to the
Promise. Daniel does not mention any of the
Fathers -- Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, -- by name; he does not mention the
'inheritance' that was promised to the Fathers and he does not mention
David to whom the sure Promise of the kingdom was given. He does
not mention the Messiah; his references to an "anointed one"
point
not to Jesus, but to earthly kings or commanders. He does mention
"the covenant" seven times, of which three are described as the "holy
covenant" but does not describe or define it. Daniel's is a past
tense covenant, not anything new or
future. Some, perhaps all, of the references to "covenant" refer
to things other than God's covenant with the Fathers.

Why, then, do I devote a separate chapter to him?

Because of his influence on later Christian writers, most specifically
on the New Testament document, The Revelations, and on modern
fundamentalist Christians in their interpretations of the Promise as
gleaned from Daniel and Revelations. It is therefore necessary,
in a book on the Promise, to clarify Daniel as a witness to the
Promises of God. Our purpose here, then, is to unveil the
misleading
pretensions of this document so as to clear dust from our view of the
True Promise and its fulfillment. There is no better place to
start than with an examination of the one event in Daniel that Jesus
called forth in his teaching, for it is well documented in the history
of the times -- the Abomination of Desolation.

I. The Abomination of Desolation and the Date of Daniel

Let us examine some of the ancient witnesses.

In the year 168 BC,
Antiochus IV Epiphanes, the Selucid king of Syria,
attacked Egypt but was intimidated by the threat posed by the Romans
ships, and expelled. He returned through
Jerusalem, thinking the Jews had favored his enemies. There he
proceeded to do, in Jerusalem, what he had been unable to do in
Egypt. In the late autumn of the year 167 BC:

1. From Will
Durant, The
Story of Civilization, Vol. II, p. 582
He . . . slaughtered the
Jews of either sex by the thousand, desecrated and looted the Temple,
appropriated for the royal coffers its golden altar, its vessels, and
its treasuries, restored Menelaus to supreme power, and gave orders for
the compulsory Hellenization of all Jews. He commanded that the
Temple be rededicated as a shrine to Zeus, that a Greek altar be built over the old
one, and that the usual sacrifices be replaced with the sacrifice of
swine. He forbade the keeping of the Sabbath or the Jewish
festivals, and made circumcision a capital crime. Throughout
Judea the old religion and its rites were interdicted, and the Greek
ritual was made compulsory on pain of death. Every Jew who
refused to eat pork, or who was found possessing the Book of the Law,
was to be jailed or killed, and the Book wherever found was to be
burned. Jerusalem itself was put to the flames, its walls were
destroyed, and its Jewish population was sold into slavery.
Foreign peoples were brought in to resettle the site, a new fortress
was built upon Mt. Zion, and a garrison of troops was left in it to
rule the city in the name of the King.

2.
Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, Bk.
XIII, Ch. V. Par. 4.And
when he had pillaged the whole city (Jerusalem), some of the
inhabitants he slew, and some he carried captive, together with their
wives and children, so that the multitude of those captives that were
taken alive amounted to about ten thousand. He also burnt down
the finest buildings; . . . And when the King had build an altar upon
God's altar, he slew swine upon it, and so offered a sacrifice
neither according to the law, nor the Jewish religious worship in that
country.

3.
I Maccabees
1:54 And
on the fifteenth day of Chislev, in the hundred and forty and
fifth year, they builded an abomination
of desolation upon the altar, and in the cities of Judah on
every side they builded idol altars.

4.
Dan.11 [29]
"At the time appointed he shall return and come into the south; but it
shall not be this time as it was before. [30]
For ships of Kittim shall come against him, and he shall be afraid and
withdraw, and shall turn back and be enraged and take action against
the holy covenant. He shall turn back and give heed to those who
forsake the holy covenant. [31]
Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and
shall take away the continual burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes
desolate. [32] He
shall seduce with flattery those who violate the covenant; but the
people who know their God shall stand firm and take action. [33]
And those among the people who are wise shall make many understand,
though they shall fall by sword and flame, by captivity and plunder,
for some days. [34]
When they fall, they shall receive a little help. And many shall join
themselves to them with flattery; [35]
and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse
them and to make them white, until the time of the end, for it is yet
for the time appointed.

This event, termed by Daniel "the abomination that makes desolate,"
occurred
in 167 BC. and the "prophecies" of Daniel, up to that time
and shortly thereafter, accurately reflect the history.

But very
shortly thereafter Matthias, of the family of Hasmonai
and the tribe of Aaron,
began to resist the forces of Antiochus IV. He withdrew into
the mountains of Ephraim with his five sons and a small company of
devout Jews. Matthias died soon thereafter, and was succeeded to
the leadership of the resistance by his son, Judas, called Maccabee
(the Hammer). After winning two valiant victories over the
forces of Antiochus IV, against great odds, Judas and his freedom
fighters reclaimed Jerusalem, drove the forces of Antiochus IV from the
temple precincts,
removed the pagan altars, cleansed and rededicated the Temple and
restored the ancient rites to the acclaim of the returning
orthodox Jews. This was on 25 Kislev, 164 BC according to I
Maccabees 4:52. Hanukkah is the annual celebration of the
anniversary of this event
in nearly every Jewish home to this day.

In the next year, 163 BC, Antiochus IV sent a new army under his
regent, Lysias, to
recapture
Jerusalem, but word came to Lysias on the way that Antiochus
was dead. Other things had a higher priority for the successor,
who turned away from Jerusalem to more pressing matters.

Daniel's supposed prophecies are word for word accurate until 11:31,
and until some time after the desolation of the Temple by Antiochus
IV. Verses 11:32-35 are suggestive of the early resistance under
the leadership of Matthias and his Sons. But then, Daniel goes on
to prophesy, beginning with vs. 36, the continuing successes of
Antiochus IV contrary to every fact we know of history. Then the
document continues the prophecies of the actions and successes of
Antiochus IV (the king of the North) in a campaign against the "king
of the South" (a designation of a Ptolemaic king of Egypt,
Ptolemy VI Philometer, reigned 180-145 BC) and other events that never
took place. Most telling, while prophesying of these non events,
he failed to mention very important events. Specifically, he did
not prophesy the
rise of the Hasmonean and their signal victories over Antiochus IV,
the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC, the death of arch enemy
Antiochus IV (the king of the North) in 163 BC. He surely would
have mentioned these had they occurred before publication of the
document, or he would have prophesied them had he been a genuine
prophet.

We can come to but one conclusion based on the following simple facts:

1. Daniel's 'prophecies' of
events prior to and including the desolation of the Temple (167 BC) are a retelling of history ending with
11:31
(or perhaps v.35) They
are
not prophecy.
2. The only real prophecy begins with 11:32 or perhaps 11:36, and it
tells of events following 164 BC, during the reign of Antiochus IV,
that have no place in history.
3. Therefore, the genuine prophecy is false prophecy (prophesied events
did not occur).
4. The Document was brought to its present state of completion early in
164 BC when the retelling of history ended and the genuine but failed
prophecies began.

There are other items of
evidence that point to the date of composition of this document.
One of the most telling is that there are two lists of Jewish Heroes
from the ancient literature. One of them is I Maccabees 2:59,60
(100 BC) that includes Daniel. But in the earlier list of 180 BC
(Ben Sira, Sir. 44-49) Daniel is unknown. The evidence is
compelling. The document was written (completed) after 180
BC.

II. Evaluating the Document

Having established the date of composition, we have doubtless generated
many other questions. Let's take a look at some of them.

1. How should we classify the Book of Daniel?

The Book of Daniel is an early (perhaps the earliest) example of
"Jewish Apocalyptic," of which the Book of Revelations is one of the
later ones.

What is Jewish Apocalyptic?

This is a literary genre consisting of documents that the writers set
in a
previous age, then by means of dreams,
visions and communications from angels, proceeds to prophesy events of
subsequent history (thus validating the document for his contemporary
readers). Then he enters into prophesying wonderful things to come.
We, who follow long afterward, get sucked into the mystery
language and fall for it also!

Documents of this genre typically appear in times of great national
distress, when all hope seems lost. Daniel appeared subsequent to
the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus, and the Book of Revelation
(another example of Jewish apocalyptic) similarly appeared following
the desecration of the Temple and its
complete destruction by the Romans in 70 AD, and during a time of
persecution under the Roman emperor, Domition.

Another characteristic of Jewish apocalyptic literature shared by both
Revelations and Daniel is the attribution of the message to an earlier
heroic figure -- Daniel in the case of Daniel, and the Apostle John in
the case of Revelations.

2. Who wrote it?

Like many other books in the Bible, it is a cobbled document,
consisting of contributions from different writers combined into
one. There is much to confirm this assertion,
including the fact that the oldest copies
have portions in Aramaic and other portions in Hebrew. We
do not know the identity of any of the writers, nor of the cobbler who
produced the finished document in 164 BC. Our present "Daniel"
omits many
things that were
included in it in the Septuagint and
elsewhere. "Bel and
the
Dragon" is one of these, which we find in the Apocrypha.

The document identifies one of the Hebrew exiles in Babylon as the
writer. While it is conceivable that such a person made a
contribution, even this is very unlikely, since he was apparently
unknown as a
"Jewish Hero" until after the document appeared (164 BC).

3. Why was if written?

This is speculation, since we have no explanation from the
cobbler. Yet it is very easy to conceive of a motive
(characteristic of Jewish Apocalyptic), both for
its writing and for its early popularity in Israel of the mid Second
Century BC.

We must first set the stage. Having been once
destroyed as a state and taken captive by the Babylonians, then having
high hopes for a restitution of the kingdom during the time of the
early Post Exilic Period (Perhaps under Zerub'babel), which had not
materialized after three humdred years, things were very bleak for the
ancient Jews.
They were pawns of power, dominated by first one alien king then
another, and
then the unthinkable: the utter desecration of their Temple and the
dispersal or murder of their multitudes. God's promises through
the Patriarchs and Prophets were
beginning to look very thin to the survivors; something was required,
and urgently,
to give hope to a defeated and oppressed people.

Daniel does that by combining hero stories from their times of greatest
despair with prophecies of a glorious future. The heroes --
Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego -- gain status as ideal
representatives of Israel in many ways, including setting their stories
in the upper echelons of the administrations of the King who had
captured them and destroyed
their kingdom. The message of the book says that, no matter how
desperate the situation, God has not forgotten us -- look what he did
for Daniel, Meshach, Shadrach, and Abednego! Keep the
faith! Hold fast -- your promised kingdom is coming!

4. Is it truth or fiction?

Persons cast into a burning, fiery furnace do not come forth
unscathed, without even the smell of fire. Such stories are
fictional Jewish hero myths. Go to the following links for more
detailed information:

The Lord found a way, even in Daniel, to remind us of the Promise, as
it is a promise of the kingdom that had been
announced through David and other prophets. In such an apocryphal
document, it is required that the ultimate promise be fulfilled -- that
of the restoration of their lost kingdom. This also accurately
sets the historical era when the promised of the kingdom was fulfilled.

Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream of the colossus with the head
of Gold. Recounting history, the document speaks of the
Babylonian
king (the head of Gold), the succeeding kingdom of the Medes and the
Persians (the inferior kingdom, 2:39), the Kingdom of Alexander the
Great and his four successors, then the kingdom of the Romans (strong as iron, vs. 1:40f).
The "feet partly of potters clay and partly of iron" represents the
phase of the Roman dominion that existed in the First Century.
The "potters clay" is fired clay, hard and brittle, that lends itself
to be broken, and so we have this prophecy that is true to the facts
and to the Good News of the Kingdom announced by Jesus:

Daniel 2
[43] As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay,
so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold
together, just as iron does not mix with clay. [44]
And in the days of those kings
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which shall never be
destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these
kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand for ever; [45]
just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand,
and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver,
and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be
hereafter. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure.

This metaphor of the shattered kingdoms was not original with
Daniel. It appeared in prophecy in Psalm 2 as follows:

Psalm 2[7] I
will tell of the decree of the LORD:He said to me, "You are my son,today I have begotten you.[8] Ask
of me, and I will make the nations your heritage,and the ends of the earth your
possession.[9] You shall break them with a rod of
iron,and
dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

To verify the fulfillment of the kingdom prophecy of Psalm 2, one need
only count
the many separate nations today that were once under the Roman
dominion. His rod of iron shattered them to pieces precisely as
the colossus of Daniel was shattered. To see when and how this
prophecy of
the coming of the kingdom of God was revealed through Jesus, go to
Jesus
and listen carefully to his Word. You may also read my testimony
in this chapter of Jesus:
the Rock of Offense. Daniel meant his prophecy to be
fulfilled with the restoration of the kingdom of David as it was
before. This did not occur, but if one takes Daniel's 'prophecy'
and makes it purely metaphorical, it also can be made to apply to the
coming of the Kingdom of God as revealed by Jesus.

Conclusion

Jesus' single overt reference to Daniel in Matthew 24:15 does not
validate the entire book, neither can it mean that Daniel accurately
prophesied the Roman desecration of the Temple in 70 AD. Rather,
Jesus
knew
that the Abomination of Devastation (desolation) experienced under
Antiochus IV was
soon to be repeated following a rebellion against Rome. He
therefore referred to Daniel, with which his disciples were familiar,
and to the devastation by Antiochus IV to explain what was soon to take
place prior to the passing of that generation (Matt. 24:34, Mark.
13:30, Luke 221:32).

There are other prophecies in
Daniel, in particular in the last half of the book, that many take to
refer to the (yet unfulfilled) Promise. This is not likely, since
it can be readily seen that they refer to the restitution of the
kingdom of the Jews as it was in the time of David. There are
also certain phrases that lend themselves to incorrect interpretation
by Christians through the ages and today. "The Saints" refer to
faithful Jews who endure all the persecutions of Antiochus IV without
losing faith. "The time of the end" and similar phrases that lend
themselves to interpretations of modern Christians as applying to the
end of the present age, or the end of the world, was clearly defined by
the document:

Dan.11[35]
and some of those who are wise shall fall, to refine and to cleanse
them and to make them white, until the time of the end, for it is yet for the time appointed. [40] "At the time of the end the king of the south shall attack him;
but the king of the north shall rush upon him like a whirlwind, with
chariots and horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall come into
countries and shall overflow and pass through.

This identifies the "time of the end" with the time of a war between
Antiochus IV, elsewhere clearly identified as "the king of the North"
and the Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt, Ptolemy VI Philometer, as the
king of the South. That such a later clash between the two rulers
never
materialized does not mean it is a prophecy yet to be fulfilled.
It means only that the Book of Daniel contains false
prophecy.

The Book of Daniel, like the Book of Revelation, is a poor predictor of
future events. It does not carry forth the Promise of God as do
other Old Testament witnesses.